The Wrack

Tom Twist, Sustainability Officer at The Chewonki Foundation, visited the Wells Reserve last week to present our very first Climate Stewards evening lecture. This series is funded by NOAA's Climate Stewards Education Project. The lectures aim to enable community members to develop a greater knowledge and understanding of climate change, thereby appreciating the impact of their choices more, reducing their carbon footprints, and becoming more impassioned stewards of the planet.Tom Twist's presentation sent us all down this path towards climate stewardship.

Tom began his talk with reasons to move away from fossil fuels: They run out, they pollute, they cause climate change, they fund tyrannical dictators, and they help widen the divide between the wealthy and the poor. Tom explained the inverse relationship that exists between freedom and the price of oil (learn more in Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded), and echoed Bill McKibben in saying that Exxon Mobile is the "richest company in the history of money."

What are people saying about the camp programs at the Wells Reserve? Here is a sampling of testimonials from the parents and grandparents of past campers.

Can you bribe a disaster? No, but you can get a dirty look for trying.

Wells Reserve, Center for Wildlife, and York County Audubon Society partnered yesterday to offer the third annual Winter Wildlife Day, and 150 people attended! Activities included live animal presentations with non-releasable wildlife ambassadors, tracking walks, face painting, and the creation of plaster track casts, owl window decorations to prevent bird strikes, and binoculars. Snowshoes were available to use on the trails, and hot cocoa greeted visitors when they returned from the outdoors. It was a bustling day with lots of smiling faces!

We had loads of fun with campers this week during school vacation! Both days of Winter Trekkers Camp brought us out on the trails of the Reserve, exploring tracks and scat that wildlife left behind, searching for camouflaged rabbits, looking into tidepools at the beach, and wearing our scientist hats to test the temperature of varied mini-habitats.

We're inviting experts on climate literacy, climate politics, and practical solutions to climate-change challenges to Mather Auditorium for a series of thought-provoking and action-inspiring lectures. Please plan to join us  and bring along a friend. Follow the links below for details on each lecture.

Valentine's Day. How many lovers committed to one another today, first with a "Will you" and then with a "Yes," launching themselves giddily into an engagement that promises to be filled with joy, anticipation, growth, and bewilderment?

We in Maine don't have much call for marking Groundhog Day. Our groundhogs are lying low before checking for any shadows.

"Quick! In one minute tell the person across from you something you learned in our three-day Climate Adaptation Training that you plan to take back to your community."

Our 40+ participants weren't phased as they blurted out new information they gained from presentations by the NOAA Coastal Services Center and six local speakers on topics like climate change science, creating a vulnerability assessment, planning for adaptation, and communicating these concepts to your community.